Islamists arrested in movie row
Source: Agencies |
October 10, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Tunisian police yesterday arrested dozens of Islamist demonstrators set on attacking the offices of a television channel that had shown the award-winning film "Persepolis," officials said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Hichem Meddeb said police blocked the attackers before they could reach the offices of the Nessma private television channel in the center of Tunis and arrested around 50 of them.
Meddeb said there were casualties, without saying how many, and emphasized "authorities' determination to oppose troublemakers."
The head of Nessma, Nabil Karoui, said the attackers were angered by the showing of "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi's moving and humorous adaptation of her graphic novels about growing up during and after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. He said they consider it hostile to their religious convictions.
The film won the jury prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
"These extremists want to impose a new dictatorship," Karoui said. "We are a channel for liberty, modernism and democracy. We will not back down and will continue to follow our independent editorial line."
Tunisians are set to hold landmark elections for a constitutional assembly in just two weeks after overthrowing their long-serving ruler in a popular uprising in January.
The ensuing nine months have seen the rise of a new ultraconservative group of Muslims that kept a low profile under the government of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Salafists, as the conservatives are known, attacked a movie theater showing film they deemed insulting to Islam in June and just last Thursday the head of Sousse University's school of humanities said staff were threatened with knives for not enrolling students wearing the Muslim face veil.
On Saturday, 200 women demonstrated in Tunis to denounce the "forces of backwardness and the fanatics."
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